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" The girls at the birthday party I had attended that Friday afternoon suddenly stopped talking and giggling when the birthday girl&amp;#039;s father walked in. He put down his briefcase and said, &amp;quot;Happy birthday!&amp;quot; Reflexively, we all mumbled, &amp;quot;Happy birthday.&amp;quot;   We were scared of him. He was, after all, a dad. And back then, we feared other kids&amp;#039; dads because, frankly, they weren&amp;#039;t around all that much.  The one time my father came to pick me up at school, he looked for me in the sixth grade. Only, I was in the seventh grade. I can&amp;#039;t blame him, really. Everything that had to do with us kids fell to my mother, a full-time, at-home mom.   My father, on the other hand, was often busy traveling to Europe or South America or some other place halfway around the world on business. When he called us, there was a delay as our voices were relayed over a satellite. &amp;quot;How are you?.....&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;....Good. Where are you, Dad?.....&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;.... Brussels....&amp;quot;  So it&amp;#039;s no wonder that our world seemed so far from his. And it&amp;#039;s no wonder why we girls were so intimidated by the birthday girl&amp;#039;s dad that Friday afternoon.   But all that&amp;#039;s changed with this generation of fathers, starting at the school bus stop. Some mornings, there&amp;#039;s nothing but moms trying to keep the kids from losing their soccer ball in traffic. Other mornings, a few dads trickle in and on some, the dads outnumber us moms. They even know what grades their kids are in.  Dads came to the first grade Halloween parade and the third grade class trip. They pick up their kids after school and take them to soccer practice. They carpool and host playdates, and one brave man even signed up to be the school&amp;#039;s sole Class Dad. They&amp;#039;re showing up in ways they never used to, and that&amp;#039;s good for all of us.  When my neighbor, Ken, emerged from the woods one recent afternoon with my boys and his son, looking for the kids&amp;#039; bicycles, I knew things had changed quite a bit since I was a girl. And I know they&amp;#039;ll change even more when my boys become fathers. At the very least, they won&amp;#039;t be feared by the other kids in the neighborhood.   Fatherhood has come down to earth, and it&amp;#039;s really good to see all those dads at the school bus stop and beyond. It&amp;#039;s good to see them put down their briefcases and join us. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a2271/good-grief-022008/>